New top story from Time: Two Decades Later, the Lessons of the 9/11 Commission Echo

https://ift.tt/373VBFc

This article is part of the The DC Brief, TIME’s politics newsletter. Sign up here to get stories like this sent to your inbox every weekday.

There are a few enduring narratives that, with a few tweaks here and there, can frame up just about any big story in Washington. And here in D.C., one of them is playing out with an ironic antecedent inside the powerful Cheney family.

First, the topline: A shocking crime has been committed against America, and investigators want answers. They want to know who in power had missed the warning signs about the deadly attack on the seat of American power. What are the systemic and individual failures, and what changes must be made to prevent a repeat from those who hold American values in such contempt?
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

Almost 20 years ago, the investigators in question wanted to figure out how the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks happened. Today, they want to know what happened on Jan. 6, when a violent mob sought to overturn President Donald Trump’s electoral loss at the U.S. Capitol.

Both probes hinge on the largely undisputed powers of executive privilege—the legal theory that a President should be free to solicit advice from his team without fear that his top hands would be forced to recount their conversations before the world. Twenty years ago, former Vice President Dick Cheney was among those pushing an absolute view on executive privilege as the George W. Bush White House wrangled if and how top aides would talk to the 9/11 Commission or turn over paperwork, even down to routine forms. Fast forward a few decades and his daughter, Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, is now on the other side of that table, demanding answers from former President Donald Trump and his inner circle.

Each reflects the broader posture of politics at the moment.

In the wake of 2001, the investigators negotiated fairly unsuccessfully to get access to presidential memos, schedules and aides. Only when a damning bit of testimony from a former counterterrorism adviser turned the political table did the White House relent and agree to open the file cabinets and allow top hands to testify. The 9/11 commissioners didn’t want to use the limited subpoena power afforded them by the law, feeling it would set up an unnecessary and toxic posture between the two ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, and instead relied on a collective national need to have, once and for all, a definitive accounting of the al Qaeda plot that would spark an almost-20-year war in Afghanistan.

These days, that sense of there being a singular national interest in getting to the bottom of Jan. 6 is nowhere to be found. Americans may have rallied behind the investigation into what led to the worst terror attack on U.S. soil back in 2001, but it’s a far tougher cry to summon a shared curiosity as to what brought the worst political violence to the Capitol since the War of 1812. Outwardly, Republicans don’t seem all that bothered by what happened the day a violent mob overtook the Capitol and tried to derail the routine certification of the November election results. To watch the most popular conservative opinion hosts, you wouldn’t really know the melee left five dead and Congress deeply shaken. “There was certainly a lot of violence that day but it was not a terrorist attack. It wasn’t 9/11. It wasn’t the worst thing to happen to America. It wasn’t an insurrection,” Fox host Laura Ingraham told her viewers on Tuesday, the first day of the Jan. 6 inquest. “God save us from these third-rate theatrics,” she said with a chuckle.

This newsletter has said it before and is saying it again: it didn’t have to be this way. Republicans derailed plans for a nonpartisan, apolitical independent commission to study the events that would have been similar to the 9/11 Commission. Left with no better option, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced she was empanelling a select committee to investigate the day and invited Republicans to join her. When House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy recommended Trump apologists to represent the GOP, Pelosi, as is her power, rejected them as fundamentally unfit to find answers. In turn, McCarthy announced he would not select any Republicans to participate.

Democrats—and Republican mavericks Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, both of whom voted to create the panel and are serving on it at Pelosi’s request—now have the difficult task of answering what created the environment that led to the violence that left statues inside the Capitol smeared with blood and tear gas lingering in the air ducts. While former Vice President Cheney had limited tolerance for second-guessing of executive power, Rep. Cheney seems to have unlimited curiosity. She wants the truth—even if it proves debilitatingly embarrassing for her fellow Republicans. “Will we be so blinded by partisanship that we throw away the miracle of America?” Cheney asked. “Do we hate our political adversaries more than we love our country and revere our Constitution?”

The Jan. 6 investigators, like the 9/11 commissioners, have subpoena powers. But unlike their forebearers, the current officials will not hold that power in reserve. In fact, the panel’s chairman has said explicitly that no one is off limits and subpoenas will be in the offing. This moment’s apparent inability for opposing political viewpoints to even agree on facts makes it much easier for these investigators to drop any interest in comity. The Department of Justice has decided that former Trump aides cannot assert executive privilege, opening the door for their testimony and closing it for Bush-era abilities to dodge questions.

Which is why the bookends of this story—starring two generations of a great American political family—are so deeply fascinating. Where Dick Cheney said Congress had very limited rights at poking the presidency, Liz Cheney is pulling out her lance. The 9/11 Commission had its problems, for sure, but the Jan. 6 panel seems to have learned the lessons. It’s a twist that historians, no doubt, will probe when the history of this century is written far down the road. And it’s a reminder that Washington is a city of some pretty predictable patterns.

Make sense of what matters in Washington. Sign up for the daily D.C. Brief newsletter.

Comments

FOX NEWS: Father who was given months to live speaks out on thyroid cancer misconceptions A father who was told he had six months to a year to live when he got gravely ill from medullary thyroid cancer in 2019 has surpassed his doctor’s prediction, and he hopes others become “purveyors of positivity” after hearing his story.

Father who was given months to live speaks out on thyroid cancer misconceptions A father who was told he had six months to a year to live when he got gravely ill from medullary thyroid cancer in 2019 has surpassed his doctor’s prediction, and he hopes others become “purveyors of positivity” after hearing his story. via FOX NEWS https://ift.tt/2XlinXm

New top story from Time: How Spirited Away Changed Animation Forever

https://ift.tt/3xVoGP5 Twenty years ago, on July 20, 2001, a film that would become one of the most celebrated animated movies of all time hit theaters in Japan. Directed by Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli, Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi, titled Spirited Away in English, would leave an indelible mark on animation in the 21st century. The movie arrived at a time when animation was widely perceived as a genre solely for children, and when cultural differences often became barriers to the global distribution of animated works. Spirited Away shattered preconceived notions about the art form and also proved that, as a film created in Japanese with elements of Japanese folklore central to its core, it could resonate deeply with audiences around the world. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The story follows an ordinary 10-year-old girl, Chihiro, as she arrives at a deserted theme park that turns out to be a realm of gods and spirits. After an overeating incident ...

New top story from Time: ‘It’s a Catastrophe.’ Iranians Turn to Black Market for Vaccines as COVID-19 Deaths Hit New Highs

https://ift.tt/3AODY94 In January, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made the sudden announcement that American and British-made COVID-19 vaccines would be “forbidden” as they were “completely untrustworthy.” Almost nine months later, Iran is facing its worst surge in the virus to date — a record number of deaths and infections per day with nearly 4.2 million COVID-19 patients across the country , and a healthcare system near collapse. “It’s a catastrophe; and there is nothing we can do,” said an anesthesiology resident in one of Tehran’s public hospitals who due to the current surge is tasked to oversee the ICU ward for COVID-19 patients. “We can’t treat them nor help them; so all I can ask people to do is to stay home and do whatever it takes to not get exposed.” The doctor requested anonymity in order to speak freely; others interviewed by TIME asked to be identified only by their first name. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The scale of the crisis is such ...

New top story from Time: Deaths and Blackouts Have Hit the U.S. Northwest Due to the Unprecedented Heat Wave

https://ift.tt/2UgzckI SPOKANE, Wash. — The unprecedented Northwest U.S. heat wave that slammed Seattle and Portland, Oregon, moved inland Tuesday — prompting a electrical utility in Spokane, Washington, to resume rolling blackouts amid heavy power demand. Officials said a dozen deaths in Washington and Oregon may be tied to the intense heat that began late last week. The dangerous weather that gave Seattle and Portland consecutive days of record high temperatures exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.7 degrees Celcius) was expected to ease in those cities. But inland Spokane saw temperatures spike. The National Weather Service said the mercury reached 109 F (42.2 C) in Spokane— the highest temperature ever recorded there. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] About 9,300 Avista Utilities customers in Spokane lost power on Monday and the company said more planned blackouts began on Tuesday afternoon in the city of about 220,000 people. “We try to limit outages to one hour per...

New top story from Time: Trump Is Gone, But He’s Still Energizing The Resistance

https://ift.tt/3czAuOs This article is part of the The DC Brief, TIME’s politics newsletter. Sign up here to get stories like this sent to your inbox every weekday. Julia Larkin stood under the glass roof of the Javits Center well into the morning. As a Brooklyn Democrat, she had high expectations for what Election Day 2016 would bring for Hillary Clinton. But as evening turned into night and into sunrise, Larkin started to ask the question so many Clinton supporters did that day. “How the hell could Donald Trump win this?” Larkin recalls thinking. Well, it turned out, Trump could. It was close and came down to narrow margins in three Midwest states. But math is math, and it’s a stubborn thing. Rather than slink bank into the wings, Larkin and hundreds of thousands of activists like her shifted their roles. What emerged from the rage, tears and profanity of Clinton’s loss became collectively known as The Resistance , and it reshaped politics for the four years Trump u...

New top story from Time: A Conversation with Filmmaker Adam Curtis on Power, Technology and How Ideas Get Into People’s Heads

https://ift.tt/2NQRzcY The British filmmaker Adam Curtis may work for the BBC, a bastion of the British elite, but over a decades-long career, he has cemented himself as a cult favorite. He is best known as the pioneer of a radical and unique style of filmmaking, combining reels of unseen archive footage, evocative music, and winding narratives to tell sweeping stories of 20th and 21st century history that challenge the conventional wisdom. “I’ve never thought of myself as a documentary maker,” he says. “I’m a journalist.” On Feb. 11, Curtis dropped his latest epic: Can’t Get You Out of My Head , an eight hour history of individualism, split up over six episodes. Subtitled “An emotional history of the modern world,” the goal of the series, Curtis says, was to unpack how we came to live in a society designed around the individual, but where people increasingly feel anxious and uncertain. It’s a big question, and Curtis attempts to answer it by taking us on a winding journ...

US NSA Jake Sullivan dials Indian counterpart Ajit Doval, reaffirms commitment for strong, enduring relations https://ift.tt/3agErFM

America’s new National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan in his first call with his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval on Wednesday reaffirmed the commitment of President Joe Biden to a strong and enduring bilateral strategic partnership based on shared commitment to democracy, the White House said.

New top story from Time: The Split in How Americans Think About Our Collective Past Is Real—But There’s a Way Out of the ‘History Wars’

https://ift.tt/3gOBoti What are Americans supposed to know about the history of their country? Whose stories should be taught in classrooms, whose should be omitted and who decides? Such questions inform recent education bills like Louisiana’s HB564 and Iowa’s HF802 , which prohibit the teaching of “divisive concepts” and are just two of the latest entrants in an often-contentious dialogue reaching back to the founding of the Republic itself. But while there’s been a steady stream of opinions from politicians, pundits and professors about where to find “Historical Truth,” it’s always been hard to know how exactly the American public would answer these questions. Our recent national survey of people’s understandings and uses of the past, the full results of which will be published this summer, gives voice to the unheard masses. A collaboration between the American Historical Association and Fairleigh Dickinson University , and funded by the National Endowment for the Hu...

A Green Light for Muni Customers

A Green Light for Muni Customers By Stephen Chun Have you ever been on a Muni vehicle and realized that if the light had only stayed green for just a few more seconds you wouldn’t have been trapped at a red light? SFMTA’s Connected Corridor Pilot approached this problem with a new state of the art solution. Most signals in San Francisco do not have sensors to detect vehicles at an intersection. However, through a grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation, our project team was able to test an advanced technology for signal timing based on who is present at an intersection. In this way, transit platform and traffic signal sensor data can be used to activate signal timing adjustments, responding to traffic conditions in real time. These adjustments provide more opportunities for transit vehicles to make it through intersections on a green light. The project team turned on the adaptive signal timing program during several days in Jul...

New top story from Time: Loving Your Country Means Teaching Its History Honestly

https://ift.tt/3yhxCOA Why do you love the United States of America? There is no better time to ask that question than on Independence Day. The answer to that question can and should tell us a great deal about whether our love of country is rooted in a healthy patriotism or a toxic nationalism. The answer to that question can also tell us a great deal about where we stand in one of America’s most intense culture wars, the war over American history. Where I live, in a deep red part of the country, the fight over history—so vividly covered in the TIME’s most recent cover story— is often rooted in fear. Parents are afraid children will not love their country unless they are taught that their country is good. Thus, to learn American history is to learn to be patriots. With that as a backdrop, education about America’s sins is perilous. Negative concepts must be introduced gently, and in precisely the right way, or it will shake the confidence and affection of young minds. [time...

My precise view

Search This Blog